The Art of the Demon Chapter 2

The next morning, Matthew finally managed to forget the nightmare he had the night before. It's Sunday. Matthew went to different places exploring and familiarizing the city. It didn't go easy for him because he constantly asks for directions. In the afternoon, he went to the church.

Monday arrived. The day non-freshmen students look forward to because they're gonna meet their friends again. But to freshmen, they're quite nervous and excited about it. That includes Matthew.

Matthew entered St. Patrice University with enthusiasm. But when he's finally inside the school, he was quite surprised how big the school was. Matthew is only used to going to small, public schools in the province. How big the school was is really surprising to him plus the fact that his parents managed to enroll him to this kind of school.

Matthew wandered around the university for a while. Exploring it and familiarizing it too. He passed by the college of medicine, college of law, and engineering before he finally found where college of business administration was. Matthew checked his schedule list again, it is written in the very first page of his binder notebook. His first class is Science 1, and the classroom is in 5th floor, room 5. The time of the class is 7:00am.

Matthew took a glance at his watch.. and "Oh no."

Matthew ran fast going inside the college of business administration to go the 5th floor, room 5. The time is already 7:05 and he realized that he spent a lot of time exploring his new school. Matthew saw the elevator but the line of students that are gonna use the elevator is very long. So Matthew dashed to the stairs and run as fast as he can to the 5th floor.

He finally arrived to the Science 1 classroom, massive droplets of sweat running from his forehead to his neck.

"Good morning mister..?" the typical looking professor asked. She's around 50, wearing professor's typical clothes, with glasses, and a short 'mataray' looking hair.

"Matthew, Matthew Zaragoza, ma'am."

"Okay, take a seat. You're late."

"Okay, ma'am. Sorry." Matthew said, ashamed. Around 30 people are inside the classroom and Matthew kinda feels awkward when at least 25 of them look at him while he looks for a seat to take.

Matthew finally found a seat in the back row and he's the only one in there. No one sitting near him. The row is deserted. So the class went on with him having no friends or acquaintances at all.

***

Five minutes before the Science 1 class ends, Matthew looked at his schedule again. His next class will be in the same building but in the first floor. "Oh, good lord. So far from here. I hope the elevator is available when we I gett of here."

"Pssss.." a fat guy at least two chairs away in front of him called.

"Ahh.. yes?" Matthew asked.

"Professor Perez is needs your attention." the fat guy said. Matthew can't help but he looked skeptical.

"Professor who?"

"It's me, Mr. Zaragoza. I'm Evelyn Perez, your Science professor." snapped Prof. Perez.

"I'm sorry, Professor Perez." Matthew responded, feeling awkward again and slightly bowing but his eyes are still on Prof. Perez.

"I need your C.O.R."

"My..what?"

"C.O.R, Mr. Zaragoza. Your certificate of registration. You haven't submitted it to me yet." Prof. Perez said impatiently.

"Ah, right. Sorry again, professor." then Matthew stood up and walked towards Prof. Perez and handed her the C.O.R, now completely lost his confidence. Few people smirked while he walks.

The bell rang. The students from the classroom slowly got out of the room. While Matthew does things very slowly. After what happened in the class, how can he move confidently? He walks to the door of the classroom with his head bowed.

PACK.

He collided with someone.

"Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry!" Matthew apologized as he knelt to pick up the things that fell on the floor without looking who has he hit while walking.

The lady knelt too to help him pick her things.

"That's okay." the lady said politely. "Looks like you're quite uncomfortable."

"Ah yeah.." Matthew replied, finally looking at the girl..and was quite stricken by how pretty was she. "I'm really sorry.." and they both stood up.

"No need to be sorry. I'm Kate, and you are?" Kate said as she reach for Matthew's hands.

"I'm Matthew. Sorry--"

"Stop saying sorry." Kate said and then laughed slightly.

"Sorry--"

"You said it again.." Kate said and then laughed again.

Then both of them walked together to the next class. The elevator is full and a lot of students are in line again, so the two of them agreed to use the stairs.

"So, where are you from?" Kate asked, breaking the ice.

"Ah, I'm from Bukidnon."

"Bukidnon? Wow, I'd love to go there. I mean, I only see that place in TV, and I really like places like Bukidnon!"

"Really? Well, Bukidnon is a lovely place. And you're from?"

"Ah, I'm from Cebu. I'm a total newbie here."

"Yeah, we're the same. At least you're a city gurl"

"Yep." said Kate cheerfully. "Anyway, have you heard the myths rounding in this city lately?"

"What myths?"

"Well, that there's some kind of a cult formed by students. A cult that supports or praises or worships a certain devil."

"A devil? Certain devil?"

"Yes. And that this cult, according to the rumors, is composed by only young people. They have been working on something that according to the rumors, to summon the devil they're worshiping. My cousin told me about this."

"Oh, I never heard of it. But it sounds creepy. Summoning a devil. Who would want to worshipt the devil? In our place, there's no such thing as devil-worshiping young people or even adults."

"Well, you're in a different place."

The last words of Kate resounded in Matthew's head. Now he feels quite threatened..not by this cult rumors, but by the fact that he is in a completely new world. And he'll be lost if he wouldn't know certain stuff about living here and how to deal with city guys.

Kate and Matthew spent the whole first day of school together. Matthew didn't really mind that cult myth that Kate told him about because there are a lot of aswang stories in his place, but no one really proved that they existed or exist. However, Matthew knows that Kate believes this myth by heart.

Is there a truth to the cult Kate is talking about?

(end of chapter 2)

-Pandemic-

Watch out for the next chapters of The Art of the Demon during Mondays and Fridays at 7:00PM (Philippine time) and 4:00AM (Washington USA time)